Greywolf - Ishi and Karl

She leaned against the doorway, all softness and curves, her gauzy clothing leaving exposed the mana-fire opal set in her belly button, while a blue mana stone set in a silver spiral winked in the lobe of one ear. I smiled. "You must be Ishi."

Ishi's smile was all white teeth like square pearls. "And you must be Greywolf. Is it true you're an Oldenblood?"

I blinked. "A what?"

"Oldenblood. Those whose mana flows like a torrent, and not a trickle like it does for everyone else."

Hmm, must be another name for a Celestial like Asena. "I'm actually a half-blood, but I can recharge your mana stones to full strength in a thrice, if you need me to." She nodded eagerly, and I waded over to the other side. "In return, can you give me a discount on my laundry?"

Ishi looked at me like I was an idiot. "Recharge my stones and I'll do your laundry for free until you leave Bukhara. You've no idea what the temples charge us." She knelt on the smooth stones beside the pool, but as my hands came out of the water, she held out her own in warning. "No offense, but if your hand starts to wander, I can yell for my manikin to aid me."

I gave her a snort. "Just yell for Asena, and she'll bounce me off the wall a couple times before making me apologize."

Ishi's eyes went wide. "The Oldenblood in the private room's your mother?"

"And she never lets me forget it, either." I cupped my hand over her belly and kept it there as she pulled the spiral earring out of her earlobe and set it onto my palm. Recharging mana stones never took long, even with stones as depleted as these, and midway through Ishi closed her eyes as her belly grew warm. "Almost there,” I said. “Okay, we're done."

She opened her eyes as I removed my hand from the softness of her light brown skin. "Amazing," Ishi said as she took the spiral earring and set it back in her earlobe, the blue mana stone blazing as intense as the fire stone in her belly. "The temple never charges them this full."

"They do it on purpose to control you," a deep male voice said from the doorway.

Ishi's head whipped back to look over her shoulder. "Karl, you startled me." Ishi got to her feet and turned around as a tall man in ring mail armor walked into the bathhouse. He was blond with his long hair in a braid down his back, his chin shaven clean but with a long mustache hanging down on either side of his mouth. There was a peace bound sword in a scabbard strapped to his back, and in his arms he held a child wrapped in a small robe. Only her delicate, pale white face was visible under the hood. Ishi took a deep breath. "Do you have need of the bathhouse?"

"Not this trip, I'm afraid," he replied with a note of regret in his voice. "Greywolf, I spoke briefly with Asena and she told me you were out here. I'm known as Karl the Outlander, mercenary recruiter for the White Horde, and this little bundle of joy in my arms is named Princess."

"He calls me that to make fun of me," she replied in a strange, high pitched voice.

I couldn't help but grin as I touched my heart in a gesture of respect. "Greywolf, son of Ghostdog. Did Asena mention what she needs?"

"She did, and this will help us immensely. Several children in the camp have gone missing recently, and outriders found troll markings leading up into the hills. I need permission to let you both enter our lands, but when the Great Khan agrees, I'll ask our two Lycaon mercenaries to help track the creatures."

My eyes widened. "You have Lycaons as mercenaries?"

Ishi asked, "What are those?"

"Greek man-wolves larger than ordinary humans," Karl answered. "Centuries ago a Greek king offended Zeus, and the... god, changed the king and his sons to enormous wolf-like creatures. They kept their intelligence and human natures, though, which includes a preference for mating with human women, but while daughters are born human, males are always born Lycaon. Anyway, they're both bored, and Asena told me she'd be happy to have them along to help you both hunt."

A load of worry slipped off my shoulders. "Karl, you don't know how much I appreciate this." My stomach rumbled, reminding me I was way past the midday meal we’d skipped pushing to get to Bukhara. "Ishi, I think I'm about done here."

"On the shelf where the basket was you'll find a cloth you can use to dry off." A smile crept over her face. "If you want, I can dry your hair and comb it out for you. On the house."

As I nodded and smiled back, Karl chuckled. "Ishi, you should liberate a clove-lemon from the kitchen and give it to him."

Ishi's hands went to her wide hips. "I'm a married woman with a little girl at home."

"Karl's right," Princess said, her delicate face shadowed under the hood. "I listen when the warriors talk, and someday they will conquer Bukhara and make slaves out of the ones left alive."

The mage shuddered. "My husband's a captain of the temple district's guards, and he claims the White Horde will never get across the river with enough strength to assault us. Yet I remember what happened in Bukhara's eastern province. I can only hope the temples and the royal governor speak the truth when they tell us the White Horde only desires peace."

"The Great Khan desires peace," Karl said, "but he's an old man tired of fighting. He's just outlived another wife, but his next one will be arranging his body on the funeral pyre sooner rather later." He shrugged. "Personally, I'd give him the clove-lemon."

"Apologies, but could someone explain what you're all talking about?"

Ishi was all dimples as she smiled my way. "You'll see. Your highness," Ishi said as she turned towards Princess and dipped into a curtsy, "with your permission?"

From within the robe emerged a child's stick thin hand, white as the horns on a tricorn horse, which gave Ishi a dismissive wave. Ishi laughed and walked away as Karl glanced down at the child in his arms. "You know she's making fun of you."

The almost skeletal arm disappeared back into the robe. "I like her. Besides, her temple guard captain's tarnishing her honor by sleeping with other women, and she's trying to keep up a brave front. Now, are you done keeping Greywolf from getting dressed? I want to go back inside."

Karl held up a hand with the back of his hand towards me, the customary way of saying goodbye, and I gave him the same. As he walked out, he said to the bundle in his arms. "Does her highness require anything else?"

"Don't you start." Karl laughed and headed for the back door.

What a strange child. I wonder if it's his, or where her mother might be? Best not to ask, I think. Climbing out of the pool, I dried off, then put on a pair of black trousers from the Eastern empire, and a dark red tunic with Celtic knot embroidery on the hem and on the V neckline. The only thing papa had given me that I had left.

I was kneeling beside the pool, tucking my trouser cuffs into my leather boots, as Ishi walked through the doorway carrying a wooden comb and a large lemon with brown spikes coming out of it. I began to rise but she waved me back down. "It's easier if I don't have to stand on my tip-toes."

I settled back down as she laid the lemon on the stones and muttered a few words, the mana-fire opal in her belly beginning to glow again as she cupped her left hand. Warm air started blowing out from her palm, and Ishi held it up to my scalp as she combed my hair with her right. I closed my eyes while she continued. "Your mother's fur... hair, is dark, but yours is all silver-grey, which I'm sure is because you're one of the Celts. I'm curious, though: how much of you came from your mother?"

I opened my eyes as I shrugged. "I've got her senses and toughness, which is a good thing considering the scraps we've been in. I'm also pretty much immune to disease. Not sure how much bigger I'll get, since I'm still growing, but-"

"You're still growing?" I nodded and she shook her head in disbelief. "But you're a young man, not a child."

"Don't tell Asena that or you'll get an earful. I'm twenty-five in Human years, but in Celestial, what you call Oldenblood, I'm a lot less."

Ishi made a face like she still found my age hard to believe, but didn't comment, working on my hair until it dried. She closed her left hand into a fist and the warm air stopped. "There, all done... and you do look more wolfish with your hair blown back."

I smiled up at her as I picked up the lemon. "So what about this?"

"Pull a clove out of the lemon and chew it up." This is odd, but I'll play along. I pulled one out and chewed it up, the taste of clove strong in my mouth, and she took a deep breath. "Now, tradition demands that you kiss me."

I climbed to my feet and opened my arms. "I'm beginning to like Bukhara." I bent down and my mouth met hers in a kiss, our tongues sliding together like old friends.

When we finally pulled apart, her face was flushed. "I'm a loyal wife who doesn't need a reputation any worse than the one I've got." Huh? I gave her a puzzled look and she said, "Never mind. Tradition now demands that you have to find another woman to give the lemon to and kiss her."

"Can't I just give it back to you?"

"Best that you don't," she replied with a sigh, "but there's plenty of willing women in Bukhara. Show them the lemon, and if they smile at you, it means they're interested."

"Then I'll go find one." I bowed to her as if I was a nobleman, making her smile as she curtsied back. Then she headed for a different door, probably leading into the kitchen, as I strode towards the back door. I walked into the hall and tried the door to our room. Locked. No one else was in the hall, so with my mind I opened a grey, oval gateway, and stepped into the Shadowlands.

Color bled away from the world until it everything around me turned grey. I did a complete circle, making sure I hadn't stumbled upon a Shadow creature by accident, but nothing was moving, and I stopped in front of the door. Stone and earth remained solid and immovable in the Shadowlands, and the dead lived, but everything else in the real world existed here as its shadow. The door appeared dark and fully detailed as if an illusion, rippling as I walked through it into our room and opened a gateway back. It formed, and I reentered the real world again.

The grey light of the Shadowlands became darkness. Asena must have put out the lamp before moving into the private room, but I stumbled around until I felt my pack, and found my sword. It was still peace-bound, with leather cords holding it in place inside the scabbard, but I always felt naked if I didn't have it with me. So I detached it from the pack and retraced my steps back through the locked door. Still no one in the hall. Good. Returning to the real world, I strapped the sword to my back and headed for the private room.

Asena was sitting cross-legged in front of a low table, with Karl and Princess beside her, Porthos across the table and a couple of the mercenaries from the caravan sitting beside him. Everyone except the child was drinking red wine from ceramic wine cups as I sat on the end between Porthos and Asena. She'd ordered food but seemed to be ignoring it, so I grabbed a wooden spoon and dug into the lentils, curried chicken, and mystery stew as Porthos went into a long discussion of Bukhara and its history. Double yawn.

In short order I'd finished off the bowls and the mug of well watered beer she'd hardly touched. Wiping my mouth on a rag beside the mug, I got to my feet, and Asena looked up at me. "Where are you going?"

I picked up the lemon and held it out. "Finding out more about the local customs, as you told me I should start doing."

Porthos and Karl both chuckled as Asena held out her hand. "Give me the sword."

"Asena-"

"The sword. You won't need it here, and you'll think twice before causing any mischief." Meaning I’d know better than to spend much time in the Shadowlands unarmed. With a sigh, I unstrapped the scabbard from my back and placed it on the black palm of her clawed hand. She set it on the floor beside her. "Don't be gone too long."

Enough was enough. "Asena, you've got to let me off the leash someday."

"After I'm dead," she replied before taking a long drink off her wine cup. "Then you can have all the freedom you want." There was no way I could answer that without starting a fight, so I spun on my heel, pushed through the beaded curtain, and slammed the door on my way outside.

Then I slowed down and took a deep breath. C'mon, you're not going to let her ruin your night again, so remember what papa taught you and let the anger go. I followed his advice, cooling down as I continued down the alley to the main road. The sun was an orange ball going down behind the pyramids rising above the walls of the Temple District, which was definitely not the way I wanted to go. So I headed right.

The crowd gathered me up and swept me along with them as if I was a leaf on the wind, the roads lined with more red brick buildings that had wooden stalls out front. Being at least a head taller than everyone else, it was easy to see the plaza off to the left of the road, with its stone platform rising above the crowd. People in robes seemed to be distributing something. Is this another custom, perhaps? I owe it to Asena to investigate and report back. In my mind I could hear her derisive snort as I wove my way through the crowd and headed straight towards the platform.